Chapter 4:

Calculations Used in Analytical Chemistry

4A Some important units of measurement
4A-1 SI Units
SI is the acronym for the French “Système International d’Unités.”
The International System of Units (SI) is based on 7 fundamental base units.
Numerous other useful units, such as
volts, hertz, coulombs, and joules, are derived
from these base units.
To express small or large measured
quantities in terms of a few simple digits,
pre-fixes are used with these base units and
other derived units.
The ångstrom unit Å is a non-SI unit of length widely used to express the
wavelength of very short radiation such as X-rays (1 Å = 0.1 nm).

Thus, typical X-radiation lies in the range of 0.1 to 10 Å.

Metric units of kilograms (kg), grams (g), milligrams (mg), or micrograms (µg)
are used in the SI system.

Volumes of liquids are measured in units of liters (L), milliliters (mL),

microliters (µL), and sometimes nanoliters (nL).

The liter, the SI unit of volume, is defined as exactly 10-3 m3. The
milliliter is defined as 10-6 m3, or 1 cm3.
4A-2 The Distinction Between Mass and Weight
Mass is an invariant measure of the quantity of matter in an object.
1. Weight is the force of attraction between an object and its surroundings,
principally the earth. Because gravitational attraction varies with geographical
location, the weight of an object depen
2. Weight and mass are related by the familiar expression

w  mg

w is the weight of an object,

m is its mass, and
g is the acceleration due to gravity.

Analytical data are based on mass rather than weight.

A balance is used to compare the mass of an object with the mass of one or
more standard masses.
g affects both unknown and known equally, hence, the mass of the object is
identical to the standard masses with which it is compared.
4A-3 The Mole

 The mole (abbreviated mol) is the SI unit for the amount of a chemical
substance.

 It is always associated with specific microscopic entities such as atoms,

molecules, ions, electrons, other particles, or specified groups of such
particles as represented by a chemical formula.

 It is the amount of the specified substance that contains the same

number of particles as the number of carbon atoms in exactly 12 grams of
12C.

 This is Avogadro’s number NA= 6.022 x 1023.

 The molar mass M of a substance is the mass in grams of 1 mole of that

substance.
The number of moles nX of a species X of molar mass MX is given by

mx
amountX  nx 
Mx

The molar mass of glucose is:

4A-4 The Millimole
1 millimole = 1/1000 of a mole 1 millimolar mass (mM) = 1/1000 of the molar mass.
1 mmol = 10-3 mol, and 103 mmol = 1 mol

4A-5 Calculating the Amount of a Substance in Moles or Millimoles

4B Solutions and their concentrations
4B-1 Concentration of Solutions
The molar concentration cx of a solution of a solute species X is the number
of moles of that species that is contained in 1 liter of the solution (not 1 L of
the solvent).
molesofsolute
nx molarconcentration 
cx  volumeinliters
V
n, number of moles of solute and V, the volume of solution

The unit of molar concentration is molar, symbolized by M, which has the

dimensions of mol/L, or mol L-1.
Molar concentration is also the number of millimoles of solute per milliliter
of solution.
There are two ways of expressing molar concentration:

Molar analytical concentration is the total number of moles of a solute,

regardless of its chemical state, in 1 L of solution. The molar analytical
concentration describes how a solution of a given concentration can be
prepared.

The molar equilibrium concentration, or just equilibrium concentration,

refers to the molar concentration of a particular species in a solution at
equilibrium.

To specify the molar equilibrium concentration of a species, it is

necessary to know how the solute behaves when it is dissolved in a
solvent.
They are usually symbolized by placing square brackets around the
chemical formula for the species. Ex., [H2SO4] = 0.00 M; [H+] = 1.01 M.
The IUPAC recommends the general term “concentration” to express the
composition of a solution with respect to its volume, with four sub
terms: amount concentration, mass concentration, volume
concentration, and number concentration.

Molar concentration, molar analytical concentration, and molar

equilibrium concentration are all amount concentrations by this
definition.

The molar analytical concentration of H2SO4 is given by

cH2SO4 = [SO4-2] + [HSO42]
because SO4-2 and HSO4 -2 are the only two sulfate-containing species in
the solution.
The molar equilibrium concentrations are [SO4-2] and [HSO4 -2].
Percent Concentration
weightsolu te
weightperc ent ( w / w)   100%
weightsolu tion

volumesolute
volumepercent (v / v)   100%
volumesolution

weightsolu te, g
weight / volumepercent ( w / v)   100%
volumesolution , mL
In IUPAC terminology, weight percent is mass concentration and volume
percent is volume concentration.
Weight percent is often used to express the concentration of commercial
aqueous reagents. Volume percent is commonly used to specify the
concentration of a solution prepared by diluting a pure liquid compound
with another liquid.
Weight or volume percent is often used to indicate the composition of
dilute aqueous solutions of solid reagents.
Parts per million and parts per billion

In IUPAC terminology, parts per billion, parts per million, and parts per
thousand are mass concentrations.

For very dilute solutions, parts per million (ppm) is a convenient way to
express concentration:

massofsolute

c ppm massofsolution  10 6
ppm

For even more dilute solutions, 109 ppb rather than 106 ppm is used in
the previous equation to give the results in parts per billion (ppb).

The term parts per thousand (ppt) is also used, especially in

oceanography.
Solution-Diluent Volume Ratios
The composition of a dilute solution is sometimes specified in terms of the
volume of a more concentrated solution and the volume of solvent used in
diluting it.
Thus, a 1:4 HCl solution contains four volumes of water for each volume of
concentrated hydrochloric acid.
This method of notation is frequently ambiguous.

p-Functions
The concentration of a species is expressed as its p-function, or p-value. The
best-known p-function is pH, which is the negative logarithm of [H+].
The p-value is the negative logarithm (to the base 10) of the molar
concentration of that species. Thus, for the species X,

pX = - log [X]
Density and Specific Gravity of Solutions
Density expresses the mass of a substance per unit volume.
In SI units, density is expressed in units of kg/L or alternatively g/mL.
Specific gravity is the ratio of the mass of a substance to the mass of an equal
volume of water.
Specific gravity is dimensionless and so is not tied to any particular system of
unit
Since the density of water is approximately 1.00 g/mL, we use density and
specific gravity interchangeably.
Figure 4-1 Label from a bottle of reagent-grade hydrochloric acid.
The specific gravity of the acid over the temperature range of 60° to 80°F
is specified on the label.
 Vconcd  cconcd  Vdil  cdil

The two terms on the left are the volume and molar concentration of a
concentrated solution that is being used to prepare a diluted solution having
the volume and concentration given by the corresponding terms on the right.

This equation is based on the fact that the number of moles of solute in the
diluted solution must equal the number of moles in the concentrated
reagent.

This equation can be used with L and mol/L or mL and mmol/mL.

4C Chemical stoichiometry
Stoichiometry is the quantitative relationship among the amounts of reacting
chemical species.
The stoichiometry of a reaction is the relationship among the number of
moles of reactants and products as represented by a balanced chemical
equation.

Empirical Formulas and Molecular Formulas

An empirical formula gives the simplest whole number ratio of atoms in a
chemical compound.
A molecular formula specifies the number of atoms in a molecule.
One or more substances may have the same empirical formula but different
molecular formulas. A structural formula provides additional information.

Ex., the chemically different ethanol and dimethyl ether share the same
molecular formula C2H6O. Their structural formulas, C2H5OH and CH3OCH3,
reveal structural differences between these compounds that are not shown in
their common molecular formula.
4C-2 Stoichiometric Calculations

A balanced chemical equation gives the combining ratios, or stoichiometry—in

units of moles—of reacting substances and their products. Therefore, the
equation

2NaI(aq) + Pb(NO3)2(aq) PbI2(s) + 2NaNO3(aq)

indicates that 2 moles of aqueous sodium iodide combine with 1 mole of

aqueous lead nitrate to produce 1 mole of solid lead iodide and 2 moles of
aqueous sodium nitrate.
 Figure 4-2 Flow diagram for making stoichiometric calculations.

(1) When the mass of a reactant or product is given, the mass is first
converted to the number of moles, using the molar mass.

(2) The stoichiometric ratio given by the chemical equation for the
reaction is then used to find the number of moles of another
reactant that combines with the original substance or the number of
moles of product that forms.

(1) Finally, the mass of the other reactant or the product is computed
from its molar mass.
 Suggested Problems
• 4.1, 4.4, 4.7-4.15 (odd)

• 4.17 (odd), 4.20 (odd), 4.23, 4.31, 4.35, 4-39